What a roller coaster ride! – Here’s what you need to know…

Stock Market Update Wednesday, May 1st, 2019

Stocks were up nicely at the open after a big earnings move in Apple (AAPL).

After reporting better than expected numbers, Apple hit 6-month highs and finished the day with a 4.9% gain.

But then traders turned their attention to the Fed.

And at 2pm ET stocks rallied when the Fed decided to keep rates unchanged.

At 2:30pm ET, the Fed held a Press Conference and it was an entirely different story.

The major indices slide after Fed Chair Jerome Powell shot down trader hopes for a rate cut. Traders were starting to believe that the Fed might be talking about a rate cut since inflation. But Powell said that low inflation seems to be “transitory”, and stocks dropped.

The S&P lost 1.0% from the Press Conference until the close. And the major indices finished the session with losses.

Here’s where the major indices ended the day:

The S&P finished with an 0.8% loss. Down 22 points, the S&P ended at 2,924.

The NASDAQ was down 0.7%. With a 58 point loss, the NASDAQ finished at 8,050.

Crude Oil (CL) retreated bounced back after a midday drop but still ended with a loss. Down 0.5%, CL ended at $63.62 a barrel. Today’s Crude Oil Inventories showed a 9.9 million barrel increase in U.S. stockpiles (vs. the 1.3 million barrel increase expected.

The next “biggie” on the economic calendar is the Jobs Report on Friday.

And there’s still a lot of earnings to take in. Tomorrow will be the busiest day of the week for earnings, with 322 companies reporting. A few big names include Gilead (GILD), Weight Watchers (WTW), United States Steel (X), and Activision Blizzard (ATVI).

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